Reckoning by John Grisham
Introduction
Reckoning by John Grisham is a combination of a family saga and a courtroom drama novel. Pete Banning is a World War II war hero and the owner of a large plantation in Mississippi in 1946. He has been planning a deadly crime. One morning he wakes up and knows he must commit this crime despite the dire consequences. Can his family learn why he committed his crime and save the plantation from those who will take it from them?
Summary
The Reckoning by John Grisham has three parts.
Part One, The Killing describes the deadly crime that Pete Banning committed. He tells no one why he did it. The section ends with a courtroom drama.
Part Two, The Boneyard tells the story of Pete Banning’s history. He meets and marries his wife Liza Sweeney. It tells the backstory about how Pete’s family bought their plantation in Mississippi. Since Pete was an army reservist, the army calls him up in 1941 and the army assigns him to the Philippines. Pete is one of the prisoners who suffered the Bataan Death March. The Army calls Pete missing in action and presumed dead to his family. He survives, becomes a war hero, and returns home, wounded but alive.
Part Three, The Betrayal follows the events immediately after Part One. Florry, Pete’s sister, lives next door and owns half of the acreage of their father’s original plantation. Joel is Pete’s son is Joel and Stella is his daughter. Liza, Pete’s wife, is committed to the insane asylum. His family must learn why he committed his crimes and save the plantation in a second courtroom drama.
Recommendation
I enjoyed this novel. It had aspects of a family drama, a war story, a courtroom drama, and a mystery. It was ambitious to put all these elements into a novel that wasn’t very long. The central mystery for The Reckoning was why did Pete do what he did. This question concerns every character in every part of the novel from the beginning to the end. So, it is extremely important that the reason was logical and unavoidable to make the novel the best it could be. My issue with the novel is that I don’t believe that Pete would do what he did considering what he knew at the time he committed his crime.
Links
This is the link to the Goodreads page of The Reckoning by John Grisham.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/47173384-the-reckoning
I reviewed Camino Island also by John Grisham.
I reviewed the Rooster Bar also by John Grisham